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New Study at Dutch University: Homeopathy Works for E-Coli Diarrhoea

A research study at the Wageningen University in Holland suggests that homeopathy may be an alternative to antibiotics in neonatal diarrhea of piglets. This is a randomized, observer blind and placebo-controlled trial done on piglets, not prone to the placebo effect. It is another remarkable example of a study showing that homeopathy works and that there is scientific verification for it. You can find the results in pubmed.

The Biological Farming Systems Group at the Wageningen University in the Netherlands recently conducted a research study to investigate if homeopathy might be an alternative to antibiotics in one of the most common illnesses in swine which is neonatal diarrhea of piglets. This disease leads to weight loss and increased piglet mortality, which has substantial economic consequences. Conventional treatments of Escherichia coli (E. coli) diarrhea is the administration of antibiotics to affected piglets or preventive vaccination of the cows.

To investigate if E. coli diarrhea in neonatal piglets could be prevented by homeopathy, the researchers set up a randomized, observer blind and placebo-controlled trial. On a commercial pig farm 52 sows of different parties, in their last month of gestation, were treated twice a week with either the homeopathic agent Coli 30K or placebo. The 525 piglets born from these sows were scored for occurrence and duration of diarrhea.

Piglets of the homeopathically treated group had significantly less E. coli diarrhea than piglets in the placebo group (P < .0001). Especially piglets from first parity sows gave a good response to treatment with Coli 30K. Diarrhea seemed to be less severe in the homeopathically treated litters, there were less transmission and duration appeared shorter.

Advantages at farm level are the application of the treatment by the farmer and cost reduction. These advantages and the positive results from this study make the homeopathic agent Coli 30K an attractive potential alternative in the prevention of E. coli diarrhea. This study also suggests that homeopathic treatment in livestock may help the European citizen be protected from pharmacological residues in animal products and thus reduce the problem of antibiotic resistance.